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 ThanatoSchizO
“Turbulence” (Misdeed Records, 2004)

I have always looked at this band as the flagbearers of Heavy Metal up North, in Trás-os-Montes, as the sign that our region was not dead! Well, a lot more band live up North: Insalubre, Eremites, Preeminência, are just 3 examples that are close to the genre I listen to, but a lot more have come and gone, giving the region a very solid background in terms of Heavy Metal. And of course… Eerie Litanies, from Bragança!

Back to ThanatoSchizo. The band started out in 1997 as a Death Metal band, slowly evolving into a more complex and elaborate outfit, adding Doom and Progressive details to its previously well-structured machine! From this point on, the progressive side of the band grew… a lot… too much, in my opinion. Their previous album, “Insomnious NightLift”, already showed moments where you could see the band wanting to depart – a bit more – from their Death Metal persona, to a more Floydian one (risking it all by mentioning Pink Floyd, yes). I love this release. Is it their best? I do not know. I feel their discography, up until “Turbulence”, is pristine, so it becomes hard to say which one is the best.

I have always felt that this record marked an emotional stage quite perfectly. I used to listen to it on rainy days, curiously. I always looked at it, maybe due to the colours, as an Autumn record, very fitting of time and place. It has very little elements of Doom, and none of Death Metal; still, it holds such a heavy atmosphere that I dare label it as one of the essential albums for Portuguese Metalheads to understand our scene. This is not a linear record, the music is not static, nor directed to one single point. It grows and diverges. Melodic vocals, growls, faster moments, softer and introspective atmosphere. It has a bit of everything. It paints a region, again in my opinion. So how should we label it?

Should we label it at all?

ThanatoSchizo Official Website

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